It's been one of those days.  Grey and damp outside and grey and damp inside too.  Poor CNN had to mark exams from nine to three and as for me, I don't know.  There were tears in the supermarket yesterday (we were having people over for dinner and I had convinced myself they didn't like me) - the slipping of summer into autumn and then winter is not a change I handle well.

We had a two hour window between CNN finishing his schoolwork and the start of the Formula 1 (critical, I know).  A walk to the shops to get supplies for dinner was about the grandest plan we could muster, so off we went.  Each wanted to spend time with the other but we ended up in a bit of a grump.

We're all good now, especially with my realisation that words are not always the answer (which seems like a very silly thing to write in blog which is a word-driven medium).  This is a hard truth for someone who has fallen as passionately for language as I have, but cuddles, kisses on temples and just being together are some of the sweetest words I know.

what we ate

roasted peppers stuffed with
couscous and kidney beans and feta and
pumpkin and parsley
(and a squeeze of lemon juice)

CNN's veggie chilli
it's based on jamie oliver's
ministry of food recipe
and is it so very, very good

Like all households with more than one cook, we each have our signature dishes.  CNN was the fajita-maker until he had to pick up his nephew from the other side of Sydney and I was responsible for cooking for man and boy.  It's silly because fajitas aren't hard to make but I felt a little nervous about making something in CNN's repertoire.  Quite often, the division of recipes is down to ethnicity - we have a go-to girl for steamed rice and a master of mashed potato.

I was late home the night CNN made this so he went solo with the rice.  He is very proud of those fluffy grains.  I'm proud because he made extra to take to friends up the road.  Their two year old is in a full body cast after falling 40cm off baby monkey bars and there's a five year old and gastro in the mix there as well. Eeep.

i attempted a homemade version
of dan dan mien
they were tasty
but not spicy enough

Easy peasy recipe: stir fry chopped one and a half chillis and one fat clove of garlic.  Add half a tin of coconut milk and three tablespoons of smooth peanut butter.  When the peanut butter is combined, add one tablespoon light soy, one tablespoon dark soy, two tablespoons sweet chilli sauce and a teaspoon of chilli powder (although I would urge caution as my experience with chilli powders is that they vary a lot in strength).  Thin with water and toss through cooked noodles.  Serve. (do you like my Gordon Ramseyesque single syllable sentence?)

i steamed bok choy
on top of the noodles
(the steamer was
a wedding present)

me, myself and i - day 5

mixing it up
architecturally
(a poor attempt to provide
continuity with yesterday's post)

Remember when I said I wasn't eating rubbish?  I spoke too soon because I had Fruit Loops for dinner tonight (if CNN was here, he'd point out that at least I got in one of my five servings of fruit and vegetables).  I had it all planned out - baked sweet potatoes for dinner and Japanese pumpkin for tomorrow's dinner (I must be craving carotene) - but when I got to the supermarket, I completely forgot to buy sweet potatoes.  I blame working 9.5 hours today even though that was my fault too (the whole not understanding flexi-time thing).  I also have to admit that I did have soup in the freezer... so maybe the contents of my dinner was more down to choice rather than necessity.

The best I can do today - a joke, from one of the young people I work with:

Everyone knows Gandhi was spiritual but did you know he had really bad calluses and really bad breath?  That's why they called him super-callused-fragile-mystic-extra-halitosis.

 Boom, boom!  Like I said to the kid, it's so bad, it's good.

me, myself and i - day 4

picture taken by my daddy
the home of the
tiger balm mogul
(well, his hong kong home)

Hello internet.  I must apologise sincerely to you for the cancellation of this week's 'what we ate.'  Everything I ate was rubbish.  Okay, so it wasn't rubbish.  It was good, healthy, yummy food but it was all easy peasy stufff - stir fries, noodles in soups, scrambled eggs, pasta (oh and I had take-away sushi when I went to the cinema last night).  I also had a mini-failure trying to make muesli bars.  CNN's camp is 'nut-free' (crazy, right?) so I decided I would make my own muesli bars, substituting dark chocolate for the nuts.  I forgot to let the mixture cool before stirring the chocolate drops so they all melted.  Ooops.  The muesli bars are still perfectly tasty but it just wasn't what I had in mind.

Trying really hard not to sound like a whiny mcwhinerson, I am now working flexi-time.  It's great to be able to fit my job around my life but I think my inclination to have more life than job means I'll be doing a long day tomorrow to catch up.  It's also hard getting into the habit of keeping track of the hours.  When I was a teacher, I just worked until all the lessons were planned and the books were marked.  The next job I had was pretty similar.  Working hours were 9-6:30 but more often than not, we would work longer than that without financial compensation.  No one minded because we were working for a cause we believed in and because it was such a human, caring, genuine place to work.  It's not that my new job isn't these things, it's just that I need to adapt to the way in which the financial side of it works and the implications that has on how I approach work.

In other news, I have now completed 60% of my nights away from my buddy.  He called yesterday.  Such happiness in speaking to him even though I did feel a little blue afterwards.  Two more sleeps until CNN is home!

me, myself and i - day 3

this is not a happy picture
can you see the white dots on the leaves
whitefly consarn it
do you have a solution?

Oh dear.  I am very embarrassed.  I have only just realised that the last two posts read 'my, myself and i' instead of 'me, myself and i'.  Ooops.  I guess I should explain that this mini-series of posts is a project to stave off loneliness whilst CNN is away.  I must be having success as I've not bednested at all so far....

So when you first met the girls life was good.  Cherry, Minty, Corrie, Basil and Little P had moved into their flat share.  It was a tight fit but they were all happy on their windowsill.  However, their evil landlords decided that one of the girls should move out onto the Juliet balcony (a description that allows real estate agents to claim a property has a balcony when it only has a half-hearted imitation of one).  Cherry volunteered - she was the biggest and thought she was the toughest too.  The first two weeks out there were great - no more squabbling with the girls about space (can you imagine four ladies and one cramped bathroom?  It was a nightmare!) and plenty of peace and quiet.  Things took a turn for the worse on Sunday when she saw a few whiteflies and things gradually spiralled out of control despite bathing in neem oil like her mama taught her.  [begin narrator's voice here] What will happen to Cherry?  Will she survive the deadly whitefly attack?  Tune in next week to find out.

Poor Cherry.  It can't be any fun out there.  The wuss in me feels itchy every time I go out to water her - even thinking about it makes me itch.  I am doing a neem oil solution spray every five days as advised by the internets - does anyone else have any tips?

me, myself and i - day 2

this is me
at the beach
too scared
to bodysurf

At school, I was always in the 'slow' group for swimming.  I remember swimming across the shallow end of the school pool in the regulation green and black swimsuit and those horrid rubbery swimcaps that rip your head out.  I swam in the school swimming gala because there weren't enough girls in my class - four lengths of the pool and I think all the other competitors finished before I was even halfway through.  Despite my 'failure', I can still remember how exciting it was to hear the cheers of the crowd each time I came up for air (I guess it was particularly thrilling because my participation in sporting events is limited by my lack of coordination?!).

Fourteen years later, I am still a very slow swimmer.  In spite of this, I love boats and water and was really looking forward to sharing the city beach lifestyle CNN loves so much.

BUT - this is something no one tells you about Australia - the waves here are HUGE (and a little bit scary).  I'm sure that my efforts at getting in and out of the sea provided much amusement to those at our local beach and a morning of being dumped by the waves (I think it happened about three times in twenty minutes - out, in and out again) made me a little wary of the ocean.

I took a break from swimming unless the waves were weeny and CNN was there to supervise - 'go under... NOW - look out, there's another!' etc. - it was no fun for anyone.

During the ASS weekend, I attempted the whole process of getting in and out of the water safely on my own... and survived.  I'm not sure what did it - and I like to think part of it was pluck - but I was very proud.  It's not often that I trust my body, feel competent and rise to the challenge of physical tasks.  I'm still a slow swimmer and I'm tentative when I get in and out of the sea, but I can do it.  And it feels great.

me, myself and i - day 1

il porcellino
drop in a donation at his feet
and rub his nose for good fortune
(i needed it yesterday)

Today has been a busy day.  5am wake up to make up and say goodbye to my favourite.  Back to bed.  Church and half a Bible study before leaving abruptly to get to work (I thought I was going to be late).  An after-work daze of weighing up my options for activities after 3pm on a Sunday in Sydney.  I ended up here

me and my friend
the armoured infantryman
he does home visits
if you have $2000 to spare

- the last day of the exhibition of Terracotta Warriors at the Art Gallery of New South Wales (given the Australian penchant for acronyms, I have nicknamed it AGNeS with a silent W).

I really enjoyed it.  The first part of the exhibition displayed decorative objects made before the Terracotta Army to give some context.  Only one example of each type of statue travelled to Sydney but there was a slideshow (okay, it was much more high-tech than a slideshow, maybe 'multimedia experience' would be a better term but it is kind of unwieldy) which showed the statues in situ and also close-ups of their faces and the back of their heads (you might think this sounds trivial, but there was a lot of hairstyle inspiration there) - it is truly awe-inspiring how much work the craftsmen put into individualising each warrior.  Apparently, the Emperor was so worried that the craftsmen would loot his tomb (seeing as they knew how much opulence was down there), they were enclosed in a compound on site (presumably to die?  The curators clearly did not want to share all the gruesome details) when the work was complete.  Isn't that horrible?

this is what happens
when you try to take a bff for life picture
with a strange man
who is taller than you and not very flexible

More indecision after the exhibition.  The perfect timing of a bus meant I ended up buying broccoli and heading home.  Noodles, broccoli, tofu in miso soup.  Jarvis Cocker's BBC 6Music radio show (you must listen - he has excellent and eclectic taste and there is even a storytime segment) whilst doing the dishes.  Then lots of 'being nice to myself' (looking at blogs and eating too many mint slices) while ignoring the mess that is my home.  A lazy end to Sunday.

what we ate

After last week's debacle involving two food posts in a row, I decided to institute a weekly kitchen round-up.  The only problem is, giving myself permission to take pictures of my dinner has unleashed the food-photo-taking-mad-lady within.  See for yourself...

lemon slice
not exactly what i had planned to make
but delicious anyway
recipe here

the biggest happy hour margaritas ever
(i am addicted after the island bar experience)
they looked much bigger
in real life?

homemade breakfast burrito
scrambled egg, cherry tomatoes
avocado, red onion, leftover bean stew
cnn had coriander, i had leftover tabbouleh

Bean stew - onion, garlic, tin of tomatoes, carrot, potato, balsamic vinegar, sweetcorn, green pepper, leftovers from a tin of beetroot, tin of mixed beans, basil, parsley, black pepper.  It was so good, I didn't even add salt or bouillon powder.  I put the leftovers in the burrito as I thought it would be a good stand-in for refried beans.

garlic-roasted mushroom and feta quiche
it was better with the addition of spinach
i did that the first time i made this
but burnt the top so it was not photo-worthy

This quiche has the best pastry ever.  A word of warning though, this recipe is quite time-consuming.  You don't have to spend hours at the stove or anything, but you are meant to make the pastry, roll it out, rest it, roll it out, rest it and then roll it out a third time before baking.  I attempted to make this recipe slightly healthier by using wholewheat flour and going for half cream, half milk in the filling.

If you are making this quiche, might I suggest garlic-roasted mushrooms?  Chopped garlic, mushrooms and a drizzle of olive oil - roast while you're blind baking the pastry.  Absolutely scrummy.

it was pancake day yesterday
i meant to remind you
but i forgot
(it was also international women's day - oops)

We hardly ever eat crepes - breakfast pancakes in our household tend to be the thick American style hotcakes.  Even though I have known about Pancake Day since my early teens, I never properly celebrated until I lived with my friend Catriona whom I met during teacher training.  It's become a much loved adopted tradition which never fails to remind me of a fantastic friend

Here is my Pancake Day history:

• 2007 - Cat makes pancakes for the house, we gorge ourselves on pancakes with lemon and sugar
• 2008 - Cat gives me her pancake making secrets, more restrained consumption this year
• 2009 - I am now living with CNN but I do ring Cat up to get the recipe.  I cook savory pancakes filled with broccoli in a cheese sauce and sweet pancakes for CNN and my sister who is having dinner with us between travelling to med school interviews
• 2010 - for some reason, CNN cannot make it home for dinner this year.  My friend Isi comes over and we make a meal similar to that in 2009.  I forget that a very hot pan is needed to succeed but Isi saves the day

 And the recipe?  (I hope you have a good English Imperial measure on your scale, because this one's in ounces):

 - 4 oz flour (half white, half wholewheat if you're making savory pancakes)
- 2 eggs
- 7 oz milk and 3 oz water
- 1 tablespoon melted butter

Cat's pancake secrets are: you need a hot pan, the first one is always a failure so don't worry, swirl the batter after you've ladled it in in order to get the thinnest pancake possible, break any air bubbles with a spatula, loosen the edges of the pancake and slide it over onto the rim of the pan before flipping.  I personally  lack the courage and coordination to flip them in the air - can you do it?  And if yes, please do share tips!

cnn's lunch for today
i was just very proud of it
when i made it last night

it's grey today so
even though
it's hot and humid
i decided it was soup weather

Lentil soup - garlic, onion, carrot, (white wine only because there was a splash of that New Year's champagne left), red lentils, celery, bay leaf, thyme, basil, parsley, bouillon, black pepper.

I'm not sure how interesting this is to you (especially since my photography skills are rubbish) but I hope that you liked it and maybe even feel a little inspired to cook something new.

two saturdays

Did I tell you that CNN is going camping with work?  He is leaving early Sunday morning and will be back next Friday evening.  He is not looking forward to 'going bush' for five nights, I am not looking forward to being lonesome for five nights (I know it sounds pathetic, but if CNN was doing such a trip in London, I would have friends to keep me company) and we are not looking forward to being incommunicado five nights.  For reasons that I don't fully understand, mobile phones are forbidden on this trip - even for the teachers.

As camping novices, Saturday was spent procuring items on the extensive list provided by the school.  Afterwards, we found we were (shock horror) too tired to go to Mardi Gras.  All's well that ends well  though (look, ma - another Shakespearian quotation!), as we were invited to dinner at a friend's house.  Vegetable and lentil soup, red wine, lovely company and a game of Taboo later (please note, Taboo is much less risqué than the name suggests - the English version of the game is known as Articulate) and we were back home, ready for beddy.

All this is an elaborate way of apologising for the lack of pretty pictures from last weekend.  Luckily, my inability to post nearer to the time of the event means I have photographs from the weekend before that I have yet to show you.

here we are
arriving on cockatoo island
isn't the ferry building beautiful?
(please note all the people ahead of us)

Everyone's patience as I photographed the building meant that we were pretty much the last from our ferry to reach the Island Bar.  It was (those of you with a delicatee disposition might wish to look away as I am about to use an unpleasant word) a shit-fight at the bar and I think we were all having second thoughts about being there.  I know I was, particularly as I had proposed going in the first place.  Needless to say, things improved when we found our own patch of grass (all the deck chairs were taken) and realised that we just needed to time our bar runs to avoid the influx from the incoming ferry!

many thanks to
the lovely melinda
for helping us
take this picture

leaving cockatoo island
i also have some photos of sydney harbour
(the opera house and the harbour bridge, etc.)
but sadly they are all low-quality camera shots

okay, i guess i did have a photo of the harbour bridge to show you
this must have been taken on the ferry
but i have no recollection of taking it
this is what two margharitas and glass of wine will do to a girl

catching up is hard to do, part two - walking

It is appalling that I am only writing the second part of my catch up when part one was written a month ago.  A plague on me and both my houses!  (Apologies to all for bastardising Shakespeare; also, CNN and I do not have two homes, but my mamee's house is always my house, right?).

It might come as a surprise to some of you, but CNN and I love walking - specifically, urban walking.  Give us a map and something interesting to see

like this deliberately ambiguous couple
in the gay quarter in brussels
it's on the comic book/street art walk
can you see the rubbish bin pretending to be a beer?

and we'll be off.  When we were in London, we were big fans of the Capital Ring, a circular walk around the city.  It takes you through hidden parts of the city very few people see - wicked graffiti, disused railway lines and leafy parks.  We only got serious about the loop the summer before we left and didn't finish - though walking from Hendon to Falconwood isn't too shabby.  Londoners, do it now!  You won't regret it.

if you go in late summer
you might get to pick blackberries
though i hope you are careful
and come away without scratches

i was very proud
(and very sweaty, sorry)
i was also looking forward
to cooking up tasty treats



me, in the woolwich tunnel
underneath the thames
(it was cold and damp and pee-smelling
but still kinda cool)



So CNN and I decided to find a substitute for the Capital Ring right here in Sydney.  We knew about the Bondi to Bronte walk - but did you know you can walk from Clovelly to Cronulla? (when I say Cronulla in my head, I like to do it with my best, most nasal Australian accent - I don't know why but it amuses me.  Maybe because of all the different vowel sounds?  I am sorry if this is rude or offensive but I can't help my thoughts)  Now this is a size of challenge more in keeping with our excellent striding skills!

So, nearly six weeks ago now, CNN and I walked from Coogee to Maroubra.

my apologies for my unusual stance
CNN has decreed that we must
have interesting poses in all future photos
but aren't the colours of the seagrasses pretty?

this bit was my favourite
clambering over rock pools
peering at scuttling crabs
you can't cross this section at high tide

ignoring my silly husband
the jogger in the distance
crossed the rocks in two minutes flat
it took us about ten

So now you are all caught up with our adventures.  We'll complete another stretch of the walk when the weather cools down.

what we ate (non-food post next, i promise)

sorry all my food pictures
are of half-eaten food
i only think of sharing the momen
when my belly is happy and full

I have been reading all about kabocha at Happy Little Bento.  If I hadn't, I probably wouldn't have bought the Japanese pumpkin I saw in the greengrocers the other day.  It's beautiful - very sweet, tender and moist.  Last night, I cooked some up in the yummiest rissotto.

Ingredients

- kabocha (or any pumpkin)
- onion

- celery (optional)

- garlic
- olive oil
- arborio rice (or another risotto rice)

- white wine
- stock
- thyme

- basil

Instructions

- Peel and deseed your pumpkin.  Cut into bite-sized chunks.  Roast at 200 degrees C until done.  (I didn't have to do this step because I deliberately roasted extra pumpkin when I made a salad the other night.  The excess went into a box in the fridge ready to be made into something else - the easiest way to save time and energy!)

- Chop onions and garlic.  Fry in olive oil on a medium heat - the idea is to let both soften without colouring (not that I achieve this very often, my onions were pretty brown by the time I'd chopped the garlic and chucked it in!).

- Add one and a half metric cupfuls of rice (this should be enough for three people) and stir to coat the grains in the oil, onions and garlic.

- Add one cup of white wine or white vermouth.  (we used a sparkling white leftover from New Year's - why we didn't finish the bottle that night or soon thereafter, I'll never know - it was still perfectly good for cooking though)

- Stir until the rice has absorbed all the wine.

- This is where most recipes ask you to add small amounts of hot stock, stirring until absorbed and then repeating until the rice is al dente.  I cheat by using cold water and then adding powdered veggie boullion at the end - I just find it is easier to adjust the flavour that way.  I also added one teaspoon of dried thyme at this stage.

- Stir in your pumpkin.  This is where kabocha is amazing - it's so tender that some of it breaks down and melds with the risotto goo in a glorious orange ooze.

- Serve with chopped fresh basil.  I got mine from here:

meet the ladies
l-r: cherry, basil, corrie, little p and minty
(there are no good girly nicknames for parsley
sorry about the light it has been grey here today

We picked them up on the weekend (CNN and I are masters of lady-picking-up, don't you know) and I'm so happy to have them here.  Plants really make a house a home, even if they do attract flies (what can I say?  They're ladies who pick up!).  At least now I have a good reason to get a venus flytrap.